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Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested answer

Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

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Posted on by 75

We have 3 purchase invoices stuck in Pending Approval status. When they were submitted for approval there was a different user that used to approve them. She has since left. I have added her replacement in the workflow user group for the approvals it is working for new invoices but these old invoices are stuck.

I added my self as an approver in the workflow user group and then added my self as admin. When I go look at the invoices the Cancel Approval Request is grayed out. 

How can i free up these old invoices?

Thank you in advance for any help. 

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  • Suggested answer
    Dallefeld Profile Picture
    193 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    User that sent for approval should Cancel and resend.

  • DB ERP Profile Picture
    75 on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    Hi Kim,

    Thank you for your advice.

    I just asked who originally submitted them for approval.

    I turns out that it is the same person who is no longer with the company.

    Any other ideas?

  • Dallefeld Profile Picture
    193 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    Option 1 - Have someone login as this person and cancel the approval request.

    Option 2 - Try delegating in Approval User Setup....

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    93,151 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    Hi, Other than adding this user back into the BC, I find this difficult to fix. Because workflow in BC decides the approver when it is initiated, and then modifying it will not affect the previous records. This is the same as modifying master data after creating an order.


    So if you have a developer, you can also make a small tool to change the approval status and clear out records such as Approval Entries.

    Hope this can give you some hints.

    Thanks.

    ZHU

  • DB ERP Profile Picture
    75 on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    Update and resolution to this issue.

    As the approval administrator I went into Approval Entries and searched for thre documents. There were no entries, even though the documents showed them pending approval status.

    I was able to delete them and recreate them, probably because the did not show up in approval entries.

    Tghank you, Kim and Zhu for your ideas an replies.

    DB

  • Suggested answer
    keoma Profile Picture
    32,729 on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    modify the approval setup.

    use delegation to replace the original approval.

  • Elnur Profile Picture
    2 on at
    RE: Purchase Invoices stuck in pending approval

    Hi, select Substitute user (new employer or yourself) on Approval User Setup for employer that left and add yourself as admin. Then open Approval Entries of the document and Delegate.

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